Is a Cable TV Bundle For You?

Cable TV deals aren't hard to find, that is as long as you aren't already a subscriber to Comcast or Time Warner.

The reason for this is because the cable television guys want to increase their customer base, so of course they are willing to offer you a good deal, usually for the first year of your cable service. The cable company understands if you get service from them, you probably will set up a with one of their triple play bundle that puts all of your services together like voice, video and hi speed internet.

You can almost alway get a triple play bundle for around $100 a month for the first year. Consider what the typical cable TV company charges: Basic TV costs $55 per month, high speed internet is $40 per month, and phone service is $35 per month. With prices like this, your overall bill would be $140 per month plus all of the taxes and charges that find their way onto your cable bill. With prices like this, a promotional deal that offers all three services for $99, even if it is just for 6 months looks pretty good to the average cable TV customer.

But what kind of issues can this lead to? Well consider what the bill will look like once the promo is over. Then you will have all of your TV's hooked up to cable TV, your high speed internet with your e-mail address with the cable company, and of course your home line with the cable company as well. But suddenly your price goes up nearly 45%, from about $100 per month to $145+ every month. Its not alway easy to switch out of your provider?

While you might say to yourself it is not a problem to switch to some kind of deal from Direct Tv or something else from your local phone company like Verizon FiOS. Some things though are easier said than done. Usually the time and inconvenience of switching from cable to satellite TV makes the customer yield to whatever service they have. Even though the monthly bill is high, the subscriber stays with the cable company because they have all the services in a package, making it harder to switch. That is what the cable television company counts on when giving the subscriber a good short term deal.